Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Friday 13 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

(and a hundred years later)

This potato [the large red] is now much cultivated about London, the gentry in particular being very fond it. Perhaps they think it makes a figure on their table, on account of its colour: as to its taste, it does not exceed the pale-yellow potato, which is by many thought to be a sweeter root.
---Museum Rusticum Et Commerciale. 1764.

About Friday 13 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

Potatoes were perhaps not widely eaten, but 80 years is a long time...
---
The Use of all these Potato's
The Spanish Potato's are roasted under the embers, and being pared or peeled and sliced, are put into sacke with a little sugar, or without, and is delicate to be eaten.
They are used to be baked with Marrow, Sugar, Spice, and other things in Pyes, which are a daintie and costly dish for the table.
The Comfit makers preserve them and candy them as diuers things, and so ordered, is very delicate fit to accompany such other banquetting dishes.
The Virginia Potato's being dressed after all these waies before specified maketh almost as delicate meate as the former.
The Potato's of Canada are by reason of their great increasing, growne to be so common here with us at London that even the most vulgar begin to despise them, whereas when they were first received among us, they were dainties for a Queene.
---Paridisi In Sole Paradisus Terristris. J. Parkinson, 1629.

About Bezan

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The fleet had another addition this year [1661] in the Bezan, a small yacht; length of keel, 34 feet; breadth, 14 feet; depth, 7 feet; draught, 3 feet 6 inches; she came from Holland and was given to the King by the Dutch, but exactly by whom, is not recorded.
---The History of Yachting,1600-1815. Arthur Hamilton Clark, 1904.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The…, p.66.

About Sunday 3 November 1661

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"did try to make a song in the praise of a liberall genius (as I take my own to be) to all studies and pleasures"

LIBERAL, bountiful, generous, also honourable, genteel.
GENIUS, a good or evil Angel or Spirit, supposed to attend upon every Person; also a Man's Nature, Fancy or Inclination.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

This is another case where words have a much different meaning than they did 350 years ago. Sam is saying he has a "genteel Inclination" to all studies and pleasures, remembering that being liberal (i.e. honourable, genteel) was very important to him as he rose in the world.

About Sunday 3 November 1661

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"This day I stirred not out, but took physique ... a pullet hashed, which pleased me much to see my condition come to allow ourselves a dish like that"

I think the two phrases are related. A "physique," a purgative, that required a person to remain home all day must have been quite harsh. To be able to eat chicken at the end of that day would have been a relief.

About Saturday 2 November 1661

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"and a match carelessly with it, thinking that it was out"

MATCH (meche, F.) a Sort of Rope made on Purpose for the firing of Guns, or the setting Fire to Trains of Mines, &c.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Rump Parliament

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From "Rump: or an exact collection of the choycest poems and songs relating to the late times. By the most eminent wits, from anno 1639 to anno 1661" London, 1662. Part 1, Page 361.

The RUMP
December 26, 1659
To the Tune of the Blacksmith

Now Master and Prentice for Rimes must pump
On Hab, Noll, Arthur, and Lawson Vantrump,
A Long Parliament of a Short Rump
Which no body can deny

For Wits and No-Wits now have an Itch
To prepare some damnable tearing Switch
For them whose very Face is a Breech.
Which, &c

Twelve years they sate above Kings and Queens,
Full twelve, and then had enter'd their teens
When Oliver came to out-sin their Sins.
Which, &c

(This continues for 13 more verses)

About Foy

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FOY, a Treat given to their Friends by those who are going a Journey.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Sunday 24 November 1661

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Alsop, Josias, He was worried out of this Living by the troublesome Neighbourhood of the Garrison of Taunton, He out-liv'd the Usurpation and was at length Minister of St. Clement's-East-cheap, London.
---An Attempt Towards Recovering an Account of the Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy of the Church of England. J. Walker, 1714.

About Sunday 24 November 1661

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"by appointment to St. Clement lanes to church"

The 1854 edition of the diary "deciphered by J. Smith" has "St. Clement Danes" and gives this annotation: "So called, because Harold, the Danish king, and others of his countrymen, were there buried."

Wheatly in his edition later in the century also reads "Danes." And he gives this annotation: "Richard Dukeson was the rector of the parish at this time."

There is an encyclopedia entry for St. Clement Danes Church: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

However, despite all this, Becky Wallower seems to have nailed it down to Eastcheap.

About Sunday 24 November 1661

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"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above," Epistle of James i. 17.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About William Smallwood

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Smallwood, poser at St. Paul's School (see February 4th, 1663-64).
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Court of Requests

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The Court of Requests was abolished by act of Parliament, 16-17 Car. I. c.10. It was held in a part of the old Westminster Palace, and adjoined St. Stephen's Chapel.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Talbot Pepys (great uncle)

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Of Impington, great-uncle to Samuel and father of Roger Pepys, M.P., and Thomas Pepys, M.D. He died March, 1665-66 (see March 12th, 1665-66).
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Book of Common Prayer

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Instead of enlarging their terms of communion, in order to comprehend the Presbyterians, they gladly laid hold of the prejudices, which prevailed among that sect, in order to eject them from all their livings. By the bill of uniformity it was required, that every clergyman should be re-ordained, if he had not before received episcopal ordination; should declare his assent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer; should take the oath of canonical obedience; should abjure the solemn league and covenant, and should renounce the principle of taking arms, on any pretence whatsoever, against the King.
---The History of England. David Hume, 1776.

About Capt. Robert Holmes

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HOLMES, Sir ROBERT(1622-1692), admiral; served under Prince Rupert in civil war; governor of Sandown Castle, 1660; seized Dutch possessions on Guinea coast and in North America, 1664; captain of the Revenge at battle of Lowestoft, 1665; knighted, 1666; rear-admiral of the red, 1666; distinguished in fight of 1-4 June, 1666; fought duel with Sir Jeremiah Smith or Smyth arising out of his conduct in fight of 25 July, 1666; destroyed shipping and stores at Vlie and Schelling; admiral at Portsmouth, 1667; one of Buckingham's seconds in duel with Shrewsbury; governor of Isle of Wight, 1669; attacked Dutch Smyrna fleet in Channel, 1672; took part in battle of Solebay, 1672; M.P., Winchester, Yarmouth (Isle of Wight), and Newport.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Jesus College, Cambridge

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This college was originally a convent of Benedictine nuns, founded in honour the blessed virgin Mary, and St. Rhadegund, and endowed with the lands adjoining by Malcolm IV. King of the Scots, and Earl of Huntingdon and Cambridge; which nunnery, falling at last into great decay, was, by licence of King Henry VII. dissolved, and a college built instead thereof (1496, 12 Henry 7) by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, for the maintenance of a master, six fellows, and six scholars, to be stiled, The College of the blessed Virgin St. Mary, St. John the Evangelist, and the Virgin St. Rhadegund, and commonly called Jesus College, from the conventual church (now the chapel,) dedicated at first to the name of Jesus.
---Cantabrigia Depicta. 1763.